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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22740703">HMS FrostIron</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarbaraKaterina/pseuds/BarbaraKaterina'>BarbaraKaterina</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>International Fanworks Day 2020, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 19:07:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,222</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22740703</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarbaraKaterina/pseuds/BarbaraKaterina</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kamala told Tony about fanfiction.</p>
<p>Tony checked it out, and now he's...intrigued.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Loki/Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>165</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>HMS FrostIron</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Happy International Fanworks Day!</p>
<p>This is one of those settings where Ragnarok happens but then the Asgardians arrive safely to Earth before encountering Thanos.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was Kamala who first inspired Tony to look at the fanfics.</p>
<p>He had ignored her hints about ‘some interesting pairings that could be found there’ at first – the only way to maintain his sanity, in his opinion – but slowly, be began to wonder.</p>
<p>Then he became downright curious.</p>
<p>And then he was bored while waiting for a UN meeting, and he remembered this curiousity, and for the first time in his life, found the courage to type ‘tony stark fanfiction’ into Google.</p>
<p>It was a revelation.</p>
<p>He wasn’t surprised to find tons of stories that paired him with Rogers. Disturbed, yes, but not surprised. They had spent a fair while working closely side by side, after all, and from the little he knew about these things, two people being in proximity frequently enough was often all that was needed to get the writers’ imagination going.</p>
<p>At least, to his profound relief, most of the stories seemed to be from before Bucharest and Siberia happened, and when they weren’t, the writers were trying to offer some sort of fix-it for it.</p>
<p>He wasn’t quite brave enough to look and see how they imagined said fix-it happening. There was always a chance it would be all about him coming crawling back to Rogers, and his mental health could do without that, thank you very much.</p>
<p>At any rate, it made him curious about who people paired him with most often now, and so he filtered by date published...and blinked.</p>
<p>Then he stared, and blinked some more.</p>
<p>“Am I seeing this right?” He asked FRIDAY.</p>
<p>“Boss?”</p>
<p>“Do people really think I’d make a great couple with Loki?”</p>
<p>“It seems so, boss,” FRIDAY replied in a very neutral voice.</p>
<p>Tony really couldn’t be blamed for clicking that link. His curiosity was insatiable at that point.</p>
<p>Just...why? Did people miss the part where Loki threw him out of a window?</p>
<p>The first story was a time-travel kind of deal, and Tony almost closed it again, because the idea of living through the last years of his life again sounded like a complete nightmare. In the end, though, he decided to give it a chance and just...scroll through very quickly.</p>
<p>As it turned out, it was a much improved version of his last few years, and though some moments made him wonder, it did, generally speaking, sound like a dream come true, and it was nice knowing people wished him such a comforting alternate past.</p>
<p>He was just...still a bit stumped on the Loki part.</p>
<p>In this story, their so-called romance started when there was a chance to actually share that drink with Loki after his invasion, as there hadn’t been in reality. It did make Tony wonder a little about what could have happened – he’d have certainly known about Thanos much earlier than from Asgardian refugees – but he still couldn't see any romance blooming there. He’d still been with Pepper back then, and quite happily, too, and besides, there was no way he’d have been inclined to as much as speak to Loki civilly after that bullshit that happened.</p>
<p>So he clicked back to the story listing, filtered for this particular pairing, and kept looking.</p>
<p>Thre was one with captivity and a bunch that dealt explicitly with the so-called Civil War, so he skipped right over those, but some of the others made him curious enough to click and skim, and…</p>
<p>He had to admit, some of these people had a point.</p>
<p>There were of course plenty of stories where he or Loki or both acted completely ridiculous, as he supposed was to be expected, but the others…</p>
<p>Well.</p>
<p>Tony had never quite looked at Loki in that light before, for understandable reasons, but you can only read so many times about someone’s amazingly long legs and fluid grace and elegant hands without beginning to notice those things yourself. </p>
<p>In other words, that day's UN negotiation about the future of Asgardians was particularly interesting. Tony had trouble looking anywhere but at Loki. And even after he returned home, now that the idea was in his head, it refused to leave. It settled right next to all those reminders, delivered via fanfiction, that his and Loki's sense of humour really did match extremely well, and that politically, they worked together perfectly. </p>
<p>So, all in all, it probably wasn’t very surprising that the next time Tony saw Loki without anyone else too near, he grinned and asked: “So, Googled your name lately, Reindeer Games?”</p>
<p>Loki rolled his eyes at the nickname, and said: “No. I understand it’s generally considered a rather risky practice. Why?”</p>
<p>Tony put on his best innocent expression. “Oh, you know. No reason.”</p>
<p>“Stark...”</p>
<p>Tony grinned, and showed Loki the screen with his search results, which, yes, might have remained open in his browser since the first time he’d searched for this. Hey, it was research!</p>
<p>He watched Loki’s eyebrows travel steadily upwards, and then saw his eyes dart to him with surprise clearly visible in them.</p>
<p>“Is there a particular reason you’re showing me this?” Loki asked at length.</p>
<p>“Just, y’know. Letting you know. Google it, read it. It’s very...educational.”</p>
<p>Loki looked like he wanted to ask some more questions, but thankfully Thor came into the room at that point, giving Tony a great excuse to stop talking. He honestly wasn't sure what he would have said otherwise. It wasn't like he had a particular plan. He just...really wanted Loki to see this too. </p>
<p>And maybe observe his reaction. </p>
<p>And, you know...see where it went from there. </p>
<p>He kept receiving searching looks from Loki for the entirety of the meeting that followed, and the same evening, he got a text saying simply: <em>I knew you should have given me that drink.</em></p>
<p>Tony had to laugh, then shot back: <em>Should have taken my first offer.</em></p>
<p><em>Shouldn’t have made dick jokes</em> came back not even a minute later.</p>
<p><em>Ah, Rock of Ages,</em> Tony replied with a smirk no one could see, <em>but aren’t dicks just the best subject? Especially if we’re meant to start a steamy romance?</em></p>
<p>In return, he received a picture, which actually made him freeze for a moment and his blood pump faster as he opened the message...only to see <em><em><em>did you hope, Stark?</em></em></em>written in green letters on simple black background.</p>
<p>Several possible answers occurred to Tony, and he blamed the two shots of whisky he’d downed already for choosing to, in the end, reply with: <em><em><em>I kinda did, yeah.</em></em></em></p>
<p>The answer took a bit longer to come this time, and when it did, it said simply: <em><em><em>Then you will have to try just a little bit harder.</em></em></em></p>
<p>And, well, after that, the dinner invitation was simply a natural progression, was it not?</p>
<p>At any rate, Loki seemed entirely happy with the amount of hardness on Tony’s side by the time the evening was over, and for the next Asgard-UN meeting, they arrived together...making the whole fanfiction community explode.</p>
<p>And when, a week or so later, they gave an interview and revealed how they actually got together, and name-dropped a few of their favourite stories?</p>
<p>That, the writers of said stories would swear, was what heaven felt like.</p>
<p>As far as Tony and Loki were concerned, however, heaven felt like something entirely different.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I did a search for fics updated after the Civil War with Tony in them sorted by their number of kudos, and If You Had This Time Again came up first, so that’s what Tony sees first.</p>
<p>Also I know I already did the “someone puts the idea into Tony’s head and he can’t get it out” bit in my Potterverse AU, but I just like it too much.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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